Browsing by Author "YACINE Djamal"

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    Analysis of Conjunctive Cohesion Errors in Students’ Compositions: The Case of the Department of English at Tizi-Ouzou University
    (Mouloud MAMMERI University of Tizi-Ouzou, 2010) YACINE Djamal
    Cohesion in writing is widely explored by different researchers. However, to date, cohesive errors in writing, according to our knowledge, have not been investigated thoroughly. Hence, this study is an attempt to analyse conjunctive cohesion errors in students’ compositions. It seeks mainly to analyse one hundred expository essays written by third year students of the Department of English at the University of Tizi-Ouzou during the academic year 2007/2008. In analyzing these essays, we aim mainly to identify conjunctive cohesion errors that these students have made in their compositions and the impact of these errors on the coherence of their essays. To achieve these goals, particular reference is made to Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) classification of conjunctive cohesion and to error analysis procedures. To identify these errors, students’ essays were segmented into orthographic sentences. Then, they were analyzed. The results of the present study showed that these students have made 135 conjunctive cohesion errors in their compositions. These errors are classified into four major categories. The first category comprises errors deriving from the misuse of conjunctive connectors. This one is divided into four minor categories and twelve sub-categories. The second major type includes errors resulting from the superfluous use of connectors; the use of connectors when they are not required. The third category deals with conjunctive cohesion errors deriving from the omission of connectors when they are needed. The last major category deals with the overuse of connectors. In addition, this study revealed that these errors have an impact on the coherence of the analysed essays. Therefore, according to these results, students of the Department of English at the University of Tizi-Ouzou need an explicit teaching and learning of the use of connectors appropriately.